There are a lot of desperate people out there who are spreading a bunch of information around that I figure fits into the categories of Myths, Half-truths and Outright :Lies. I know, I know, I have written about this sort of thing before, but lately there have been a whole flock of them appearing on the horizon. Things like " you don't have to put any phosphate with your winter wheat at seeding time because you can wait until emergence time in the spring to see if anything survived, and then go out and fertilize because you have a better idea what the price and market is going to be". This is definitely a "no-no".
Despite what some people think, you cannot grow winter wheat to its potential if you don't place the necessary fertilizer ingredients where they will do the most good. For Phosphorous, this means placement in the zone where early establishment of roots is taking place. The plants must have adequate amounts of phosphorus to develop sufficient roots to sustain the plant into the winter until it "wakes up" again in the spring and grows to maturity.
About here, I introduce a personal bias about fertilizing winter wheat. I maintain that with careful seed and fertilizer placement you can place all your fertilizer in the ground at time of seeding. The phosphate should go in regardless, but the nitrogen, being carefully placed away from the seed, is in the soil and the roots only tend to get a minimum start and stay pretty much away from it. The danger here is that too much N will get to the seed and prevent it from developing good winter hardiness. It is management, but it isn't difficult. All it takes is a bit of time and attention to detail.
Another favourite of mine has been the "it doesn't cost anything much to summerfallow, because I already have the tractor and the cultivator and just by burning a bit of fuel, I can have a clean looking field". I think that most of you readers have by now figured out that it really does cost you something to summerfallow. The figure is between $5 and $7 per acre per pass. Combine that with the loss in moisture from the fallow pass and you have more cost to accrue to the practice. At this point, you also have to remember to split the income from that one crop year into 2, because you are only getting a crop every 2 years. Makes summerfallowing an expensive venture by most estimates. Maybe what Minister Vanclief needs is a slight lesson along those lines. But then, maybe he doesn't have a farm anymore and doesn't have to worry about farm economics. I digress.
I listened recently to presentations from a fertilizer manager and crop consultant who does soil sampling and analysis on a fee-for-service basis. This particular service includes the use of some software that can show a response curve with the adjustment of the various nutrient ingredients. This is graphically illustrated by the level of grain in the bin going up or down depending on moisture predictions, level of added nutrients and others. I think the poor fellow doing the presentation had a "zinc fetish" as he spent a great deal of time explaining in detail what happens to yields with the addition of various amounts of zinc.
The producers in attendance were abnormally polite and patient with the presenter, and waited to ask questions till the end of the seminar. When asked how to place the zinc in the ground and the cost of doing so, the presenter spent even more time explaining "all about zinc." His take-home message was to look very closely at the requirements and response to zinc for the coming year. Well, folks, it doesn't really matter about a minor ingredient if you haven't looked after the providing of the major nutrients first. This conclusion was overlooked in the presentation.
"You can make more money growing grass than just planting the land to grain" is one of the topics I have heard a lot of times in the past few weeks and months. This may be true. I say maybe because it takes a while to establish that grass and at some cost as well. The year or two that it takes is a direct hit on the income column and the input costs can be quite substantial, depending on the species you select to grow.
The type and productivity of the land is often a forgotten factor as well. Relatively poor quality land is selected more often than highly productive land as measured by the realized income from the grain it has produced in the past. This poorer land is also the most likely not to succeed as a good producer of grass or forage just because of the sometimes extra salinity or the poor water holding capacity on the other end of the scale. This makes it particularly difficult to predict returns from forage sales or feed stocks inventory if you are producing this for feed use on your own farm.
Try pricing out grass seed and see how that compares to other crops as you are making up your mind whether to divert this land into grass or not. A $4 per pound seed cost at a seeding rate of 10 pounds is something that a producer may not be altogether ready to spring for, when he is not that sure just how and what technique to use in the seeding process. It is wise in any enterprise to do your homework before you launch into it with both feet. Some people have had to re-seed and that can cause stress.
"Oats is the key crop to grow this coming year" is another bit of advice I have been given of late. One of our regular readers telephoned me recently and asked what I was going to write about this issue. It seems he read an article I wrote in last year's issue of the same time frame, in which I made the suggestion by asking the question -"Is this the year for barley?" His statement was "boy, were you ever right on that one". I might be hesitant to recommend oats as the "Cinderella" crop for 2002. It isn't a heck of a deep-rooted crop, compared to barley. Barley has a huge set of roots compared to oats so oats may not be the best crop to look at seeding in the dry areas. Looking at the predicted prices, I don't see much improvement on what we are getting right now, in fact they are liable to slip in relation to other crops on the menu. So, if you can live with those prices and net returns for your own farm, then go ahead.
We are talking about management here, and heavens knows I can be just as bad at being a manager as the next person, so my advice is take the time to research your options. Make the best use of your time when things are quiet and try to set things in motion to place yourself and your farm in a position where you can take maximum advantage of things offered to you.
Marketing has changed tremendously over the years and it has been proven prudent to do the best job of marketing you can. This is what management is ultimately all about.
Don't take to heart all these handy-dandy catch phrases you hear at the "senate" table of past farmers and near farmers in town without doing your homework and investigating the relevance. Most direct seeding producers have set things and seeding plans in motion already, as a result of previous cropping rotations, and are not as liable to adopt some of these half-truths.